Faithful to His Word (Palm Sunday 2025)
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Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD
THANKS BE TO GOD
INTRODUCTION
Growing up I believed that my Dad could do anything.
Every problem I had he was able to solve. And every struggle I faced he was able to comfort me through. I knew I could trust him, but that did not stop me from wandering.
For example, I remember the first time he let me go up into the attic with him.
He told me before we ever went up that I was only able to walk on the wood, and if I stepped on the insulation I would get really hurt.
For those that don’t know, the wood in your attic is solid and is attached to the frame of the house, but the areas that are insulated are just drywall that can easily be broken through.
So, after he told me what to do, I responded with a yes sir, and went up the ladder with him into the attic. For a few minutes I did exactly as he said, until I didn’t. As soon as I stepped on the insulation I fell right through the attic onto the floor of our house below.
I don’t remember exactly what happened next, but I do know that to this day I watch where I walk in the attic.
I trusted my dad’s word in a completely new way after that day. I had experienced my need for it, and whether I understood it or not, his word had proven itself as a worthy guide and deserving of my trust.
That’s what trust is, A feeling of confidence that another person is reliable, truthful, and capable of doing what they say they can do. Its opposite, distrust, is always driven by anxiety, or worry. As our worries grow, we grow more disconnected and more distrustful of anyone claiming to know anything.
Just look at our world right now. It is so disconnected and dangerous because it is a people marked by worry. We are prone to wander by reacting to our worries, which makes us feel unsafe, but God’s Word says in
The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
God’s Word also tells us 366 times to not worry, but to trust the Lord. He is more reliable than our worries.
The kingdom of God has always spread through people who trust the Word of the Lord over the worries of the world.
Once we begin to experience the reliability of His Word, He moves us from doubting wanderers to committed followers.
That is the glory of the church. It is a picture of how Jesus Christ unites what has been separated because of our trust in Him.
He is faithful to His Word. And He is arranging all things so that His Word will be fulfilled.
But He is also faithful to His Will.
At its most basic God’s Will is that we would repent of our sin and believe in Jesus, but it is also that we might look more and more like Jesus everyday.
God’s Word is for our good. And God’s Will is for our good.
So that is what we are going to look at today. His faithfulness to His Word, and His faithfulness to His Will and how they are both ultimately for our good whether we understand that or not.
TRANSITION
First, His Word. In our text we get to witness Jesus is riding into Jerusalem just as it was written, to prove to this people, and to us, that God’s Word is a worthy guide that deserves our trust.
This is a day that we celebrate in the church as Palm Sunday. A day when we celebrate Jesus as Messiah. He triumphantly enters Jerusalem and is received by the people with open arms. In fact, it is the only time He is received by this people with open arms. But in just a few days He will be rejected and crucified, ultimately fulfilling God’s Will.
This day marks the beginning of His last week on earth.
This event is recorded in all four gospels, the three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke…and synoptic just means same, because those gospels share many of the same stories. But it is also recorded in John which is a very unique gospel, and that is where we are reading our text from today because John helps us to understand the context of this scene in great detail.
In
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and because of this, there is quite a crowd following Him.
And in John 12:12
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
Here we see that it is the next day.
So the gospel of John puts this event 5 days before passover. Which is incredibly important and I’ll show you why in a moment.
TRANSITION
And notice how this people receives Jesus
So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
This day is known as palm Sunday because these people are welcoming Jesus into the city with palm branches. The gospel of John is the only account of this story that mentions that specific detail. And palm branches carried such great significance in Israel.
At the feast of tabernacles, which was a Jewish celebration where the Israelites remembered the great provision of Yahweh as they moved across the wilderness from Egypt to the promised land. So, they built booths or tabernacles to stay in for seven days, to remember their ancestors journey and the faithfulness of Yahweh.
On the first day of the festival they would group many palm branches together, which were called “lulavs,” and shake them with the shouts of “Hosanna.” Or more literally the Hebrew term hosi a na, which means “save us, we pray.” The shouts of Hosanna and the shaking of the lulavs or palm branches, became so intertwined with each other, that many Israelites began calling their lulavs, hosannas. So these palm branches were also known as hosannas.
And by doing this every year, they were reminding themselves that apart from Yahweh, they were lost in the wilderness.
As the Christian church we do the same thing through what we call repentance. We are symbolically shouting Hosanna, “save us, we pray.” Reminding ourselves that apart from Jesus, we are lost. So Hosanna has great symbolism attached to the Old Testament people as a sign that they were turning away from sin and self and turning toward God. And it has great symbolism attached to the New Testament people for the same reason. As we repent and believe the gospel, we are joining the saints of old in crying out “Hosanna!”
So, we are trusting and leaning in to the Word of God and the Will of God as we shout Hosanna.
The palm branches eventually became a national symbol of Israel, to the point that they were not just associated with the feast of tabernacles, but rather with the liberation of the Israelite people, which they ultimately attributed to the coming Messiah.
That is what we can see next in John 12:13
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
These Israelites are calling Jesus the Messiah, the King of Israel and they are doing it through the reliability of God’s Word.
They are quoting Psalm 118. And Psalm 113-118 are known as the Hallel psalms. They are psalms of thanksgiving and praise.
The Israelite people would sing these at their festivals, including tabernacles and passover. And that’s what these people are reciting as Jesus enters Jerusalem.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
Notice the first phrase, “Save us, we pray, O LORD!”
hosi a na Yahweh.
Hosanna, Yahweh.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.
They are using God’s Word, quoting Psalm 118, but they added a term….. the King of Israel.
Because the promised Messiah was the one they were expecting to save them.
The apostle John goes onto to tell us in John 12:14-15
And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
Just as it is written, John says, He is quoting Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
John is showing us how Jesus fulfilled the written Scripture through this event.
And while we do not get to see this specific detail in John’s account, in every other gospel account, we see that Jesus is the one who is arranging and orchestrating this moment.
saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.
saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here.
But Matthew is the only one besides John, that goes on to say in Matthew 21:4
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, Zechariah
Jesus went out of His way to arrange this scene to fulfill the Scripture.
Because He is faithful to His Word.
And going on into Zechariah 9:10 we get even more contextual details of who this king is.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
This King came on a donkey, not a war horse pulling a chariot. He came in peace to inaugurate His rule, not power. God’s Word tells us this exact thing in
Psalm 20:7
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
There are so many that put their trust in the power of beast and the power of man, but we trust the name of Yahweh, our God.
His kingdom is different than the world’s kingdoms. They are built by control and power and His is built by peace.
And He tells us whoever does not receive His kingdom like a child shall not enter it.
He will not come back in power until He has come to consummate His rule.
So, Jesus orchestrated all of this, making sure that the entire history of the Jewish people and the Word of God pointed to the significance of this moment, but John tells us that the disciples didn’t make the connection to Scripture until later. Look at John…
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
It was not until Jesus was glorified that they were able to trust His Word in a new way. Once they experienced the reliability of His Word, they moved from doubting wanderers to committed followers. And this achieved God’s Will for their life. That they would repent of their sins and believe in Jesus, and look more like Him everyday.
But there were many others there who had been following Jesus since He raised Lazarus from the dead, and they are shouting Hosanna, and they are calling Him King. Yet 5 days from now they will be shouting “crucify Him!”
Why?
We see this a lot in church. People so excited about who they think Jesus is, that they are ready to shout His name and commit their lives to Him, but as soon as they’re called to pick up their cross, they are ready to quit.
This is important for us as westerners to hear. The Will of God for our life is that we would repent of our sins and believe in Jesus, but it is also that we would look more like Jesus.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The Word of God says that the Will of God is for our good, but we often have a distorted view of good, and we are prone to wander toward that distorted view. In the western world we tend to associate the word good with success, and comfort, and acclaim.
But the Word of God defines good as being conformed into the image of Jesus, thus fulfilling the Will of God.
Jesus suffered and was a man of sorrow, and He perfectly fulfilled the Will and Word of God. He look past success, comfort and acclaim to His cross. And we are called at times to suffer and be sorrowful, and pick up our cross.
We must quit wandering towards success and comfort and acclaim and assume that this is God’s Will for our life. Those are western metrics, not biblical metrics.
Jesus entered Jerusalem to acclaim, but He knew what awaited Him. He teaches us how to look past the temptations of the world and towards the cross to fulfill the Will of God.
So if we win people by telling them the Christian walk is one of success, comfort and acclaim, we will always lose them at the cross.
And apart from the cross, we are of all people the most to be pitied.
Jesus tells us about such people. He speaks a parable about a sower who throws seeds on the ground, and says this about the seeds that are sown among the thorns.
As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
This is why we are implementing things like baptism and membership classes. And vine groups and rooted groups. Not so we can be rigid and in control, but so that we can hold ourselves accountable to the Lord. He tells the leaders of the churches that they will be accountable to the souls in those churches. And I am way more scared of Him, then I am of you. I mean no offense by that, but if success, acclaim and comfort is what you seek, I’m gonna keep pointing to the cross. Instead of asking people to commit to things out of excitability, we are asking people to commit to things out of trust. And we are aware that trust takes time.
So why did this people move from wanting to crown Him to wanting to crucify Him?
Because they were leaning on their own understanding of who He was. And when He turned out to do things differently than they expected, these people rejected Him. They were ultimately, trusting their worry, and not His Word.
TRANSITION
This is a great warning for us church.
We have the capability to call Jesus king on Sunday and reject His kingship every other day of the week.
We can come to church every Sunday, but then we can leave here and become slaves to our sins.
When we proclaim that Jesus is Lord, it means He is king over everything. If we try to keep Him from being Lord over certain areas of our life, and just try to sprinkle a little bit of Jesus in here and there, then we will be in danger of becoming just like this people we see. Overwhelmed by the cares of the world and unfruitful.
We will seek to crown Him one day, and then crucify Him the next.
Hebrews 6:4-6 warns us of this exact thing. It says,
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
If this is a pattern in your life, calling Jesus Lord on Sunday, but then actively rejecting Him as King of your life, then repent. Surrender to Him as King of all, and cry out to Him “Hosanna!” Save us, we pray, O Lord!
His Word says if you do not, you will continually be crucifying Him, instead of your sin, and this will be to your own harm.
He warns us not to scare us, but because He is a good father that knows how sinister and manipulative sin can be in our lives. He hates sin and He loves you, that’s why He came. To fulfill His Will and fulfill His Word.
TRANSITION
These Israelites were ready to crown Him Lord of all. He had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and many of these people followed Him out of the excitement that brought. They thought He was coming to restore Israel, but He was coming to restore so much more. And when these people could not grasp exactly what He was doing, just 5 days after this triumphant entry, their cry changes from crown Him to crucify Him.
I told you earlier I would come back to the significance of the 5 days.
What do they mean?
Jesus entered into Jerusalem on the 10th day of Nisan. This was during the feast of passover, a time when the Israelites celebrated the destroying angel of death passing over their homes because the blood of the lamb covered them. The 10th day of Nisan was the same day that the Jewish people would have been selecting their passover lamb.
According to the law of Moses they were to select a lamb containing no blemish, and this lamb would then come stay with them inside of their homes for the next 5 days.
On the fourteenth day of Nisan, the family was to take the lamb to the temple and sacrifice it, breaking none of its bones, and then bring the carcass back to their home for the passover meal.
This served as a powerful lesson for the children in these Jewish homes. They would take these lambs into their household, and after living with them and becoming fond of them, the lamb would have to die and be eaten, so that they could be saved.
This is incredibly significant to the timing of Jesus entering Jerusalem.
On the same day that families were choosing their passover lamb, Jesus (the true lamb of God) entered into Jerusalem in the same way that God’s Word said that He would, to fulfill the Scriptures. And He was chosen by this people as their Messiah. The one without blemish.
And as the passover lambs were being taken into the houses of these people, Jesus spent that time teaching in His Father’s house. And just five days later when thousands of passover lambs were being sacrificed, Jesus Christ, the true passover lamb died on the cross for us.
It was His blood, shed on the cross, that would forever protect us and cover us from the destroying angel of death and sin.
It’s because of Him that we can live. And His Word reminds us of that every time we open it.
TRANSITION
Jesus goes out of His way to orchestrate this scene, at this time, in this place, to prove to us that God’s Word is a worthy guide deserving our trust, and that His Will be done.
So we must always ask ourselves, every time we get together, why should we trust God’s Word?
Because Jesus did.
We want to make disciples who will be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do what Jesus did.
And Jesus fully submitted and surrendered to the Word of God.
He didn’t do it for self advancement, or comfort. No, He did it to fulfill God’s Will to the point of death on a cross.
He did it to show us the reliability of the Father.
He did it to show us what it looks like to trust God so much, that we can be filled by the Spirit and locked in to His will no matter what the enemy tries to throw at us to make us wander.
He did it for you and for me. To free us from the destroying angel of death and sin.
He did it to show us that He is faithful to His Word.
So many of us will follow God’s Word, just as long as He blesses us. Repent. Cry out Hosanna! Save us, we pray, O Lord.
It is so important for us as a church to see that the one who followed God’s Word perfectly did not do it for himself. But He did it for those prone to wander. Cry out Hosanna, For He is who He says He is.
Palm Sunday is a day to remember that the king will triumphantly return. And when He does, those who have overcome this world, by trusting His Word, will rule with Him. Cry out Hosanna, For He is who He says He is.
Palm Sunday is also a day for us to remember that as quickly as we might crown Him king, we can just as quickly desire to crucify Him as unworthy, because we are prone to wander. Cry out Hosanna, For He is who He says He is.
And Palm Sunday is a day for us to witness the great lengths that our Lord will go to fulfill the Scripture and remind us that God’s Word is true. Cry out Hosanna, For He is who He says He is.
He is orchestrating all things so that we can trust what is written for our good and His glory.
Cry out Hosanna, For He is who He says He is.
Today is our entrance into Holy Week. You can follow along with us on Facebook and Instagram, but this week we are going to walk with Jesus together. Tracing His steps from His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem all the way to the cross.
And next Sunday when we meet, we will celebrate our freedom from sin and death because it could not hold Him.
We will celebrate our freedom in Christ, through baptism, the Word and the Lord’s supper. Invite your neighbor. You each should have gotten a door hanger on your seat. Pick a house in your neighborhood, or several and hang them up. We want to help people know Jesus by living lives that show Jesus and the primary way we can do that is by reaching out.
As we prepare our hearts and minds to go into this time of response, let us go to the Lord in prayer.
PRAY
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
What does 'Hosanna' mean, and why did the people shout it when Jesus came?
What was the significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey?
What is the significance of Palm Sunday when it comes to trusting God’s Word?
How can we guard ourselves against becoming like the crowd that praised Jesus one moment and rejected Him the next?
What role does community play in helping us trust God's Word over our worries?
